


Fortune Favors

by Rhiannon87



Series: Some Sort of Crazy [1]
Category: Uncharted
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drake's Fortune, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 06:16:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6362824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhiannon87/pseuds/Rhiannon87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If fortune truly favored the bold, Elena’s pretty sure Nathan Drake would be swimming in cash. Series of scenes set in and around Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the revised/rewritten version of Fortune Favors. The original can be found [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/406484/chapters/671483).

Elena smirked triumphantly as she clambered over a fallen pillar. And her producers had said the GPS device would be a waste of money. She’d met men like Drake before, and she trusted him and his sleazy partner about as far as she could throw them. They’d stolen one of the GPS trackers when they left, but the one remaining in her possession would lead her right to them.

Jackass thought he could take her money, blow up her boat, and leave her behind? He owed her. She’d get a story out of this one way or another.

The GPS said she was right on top of Drake. Elena frowned and tucked it back into her pocket, warily scanning the underbrush. The thing was only accurate to about twenty meters, and in the middle of the jungle, that didn’t help much. “Great,” she muttered. “Just great.”

She startled at the sound of distant, muffled popping. Elena frowned, instinctively reaching a hand to the pistol at her hip. Whatever that was, it didn’t sound good. She inched back towards the wall of the ruined temple and waited.

Only about a minute passed before she heard the clear sound of someone running headlong in her direction. Drake burst out of the underbrush and into the clearing, eyes wide as he twisted around to look over his shoulder. Was someone chasing him? He slowed down near her hiding place and doubled over, gasping for breath. Figuring he'd be safer if he was hiding _with_ her, Elena reached out to grab his arm.

Drake yelped and swung around to face her, drawing back a fist to strike. Elena instinctively readied a punch as well. “Whoa there, cowboy,” she said. Drake let out a sigh of relief and dropped his guard, and, well, she'd learned to take any opening she could get. Elena’s punch landed just under Drake’s left eye; he yelped again and staggered backward, clutching his face. “That’s for leaving me at the dock!”

“What are you doing here!?” he hissed.

She scowled. “Listen, I'm a good enough reporter to track a couple of no-luck tomb robbers--”

Drake’s eyes went wide for a split-second before he tackled her against a pillar, his body pressed against hers and his hands planted on the stone just over her shoulders. Elena blinked at his chest, her breath catching slightly. Yeah, he was a jackass, but he was also pretty cute, and there was literally no space between them right now. It was a little distracting. After a moment, she glanced up at his face; he wasn’t even looking at her, his attention focused on the path behind her. Before she could ask what he was looking at, several heavily armed men in military camo went racing past, shouting search patterns and orders to ‘hunt him down’ at each other.

Oh. That would explain the popping sounds and the running. Great.

The men disappeared from view. Drake finally looked down at her, noticing their position, and then stepped back quickly, his hands held well away from her. “Well, you're down to one tomb robber now,” he said, voice low and eerily flat. “Sully’s--” He cut off abruptly, jaw clenched, and he was still close enough that Elena could see him shudder. “They shot him.”

“Oh, god,” she breathed. “I’m so sorry.” She hadn’t known Sullivan very well, but just from seeing him and Drake together, she could tell they were close friends. They’d _been_ close friends. Poor guy.

He just shook his head. “We need to get out of here,” he said in that same flat voice. “Please tell me you have a gun.”

Elena was a little surprised he hadn’t noticed it when he was pinning her to the wall with his body, but he clearly had other things on his mind. “Of course,” she said and handed it over. He was probably a better shot than her, anyway.

“Thanks.” He checked the clip and nodded to himself. “Grab one for yourself off the first one of these bastards I drop,” he said. “C’mon.”

Elena nodded and followed after him. Well. This just got a hell of a lot more interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

“Got it.” Drake tapped the map in front of him. “Right there.”

Elena leaned over the table, camera in hand, and aimed it at the spot above his finger. “The middle of the ocean?”

“There’s gotta be an island there,” he said. “It’s not too far off the coast—there’s hundreds of little specks out there, too small to show up on a map. But that’s where Francis Drake went.”

“With the treasure.”

“With the treasure.” Drake gave the map a crooked smile and folded it back up. “Right. I'm gonna refuel the plane. Then first thing in the morning, I'm taking off.”

Elena raised her eyebrows. “That had better not be the sound of you trying to leave me behind again, Mr. Drake.”

“No, I just—I didn’t want to assume that you’d want to come along.”

“Are you kidding me?” Elena said. “You’re going after El Dorado. Even if there’s nothing there, this will still be one hell of a story.” She might even be able to stretch it out into a two-part episode, if she got enough footage.

Drake chuckled. “Fair enough.” He stood up from their table and half-turned, looking as though he was about to speak. Then he snapped his mouth shut and swallowed hard.

Elena winced and hit pause on the recording, then set the camera down. He clearly hadn’t been doing well last night, when they’d parted ways to go to their hotel rooms, and he’d been pretty hungover this morning when he'd finally shown up to breakfast. “You okay?” she asked, coming around to his side of the table.

“Fine,” he lied. Obviously. “I just—the sooner I find the bastards who—I need to see this through.”

Getting into a plane with a grieving, borderline homicidal treasure hunter who was chasing after El Dorado was probably the stupidest thing Elena had ever done. But sensible decisions didn’t make for good ratings. Besides, life was short. She might as well have a few adventures along the way. “Well, then,” she said. “Shall we, Mr. Drake?”

He chuckled. “Nate,” he said. “Just Nate’s fine.”

“All right.” Elena hooked her camera to the clips on her belt and gestured at the doors. “Lead on, Nate.”


	3. Chapter 3

This was going to be the biggest story of the year. Her producer was going to _kill_ her, but it would be worth it, because this was huge. El Dorado, competing treasure hunters, pirates, long-lost colonies… and she was getting it all on film. Elena grinned and swept her camera across the detailed images scrawled on the wall. Who knew Francis Drake had been such a graffiti artist?

Elena paused the recording and clipped her camera back to her belt. She was pretty sure she could double back and cut around over the cliffs to get to the tower in Drake’s map. And maybe she’d cross paths with Nate on the way. She was pretty sure he’d made it out of the plane safely—the distant, not-infrequent gunfire that she kept hearing had to be a sign that he was around—but so far, she hadn’t actually seen him. She could just stay put, see if he caught up to her… but with all these pirates roaming around, that didn’t seem like the best idea. Besides, sitting around and waiting for Nate to turn up sounded pretty damn boring.

She headed back the way she came, going slow and quiet to avoid detection. She had no idea if any of the pirates had noticed her; she only knew a handful of words of Indonesian, which wasn’t nearly enough to translate the conversations she’d overheard. But so far, she’d managed to avoid anyone shooting at her.

Elena stepped out of the doorway, back into the sunlight—and almost immediately jumped backwards, pressing herself flat against the wall, as a bunch of pirates went running past, shouting to each other. She held her breath, waiting for one of them to glance her way and open fire. But they kept going, around the corner and out of sight. She held still, waiting, until the sounds of their shouts faded into nothing. “That was close,” she muttered. This time, when she stepped outside, it was all clear. Elena glanced around, then hurried over to the cliffs. If Drake’s map was right, she needed to go east.

Climbing along the cliffs wasn’t the safest route, but it kept her away from the pissed-off guys with guns. And it was a lot faster than climbing over and through the island’s ruins. Before long, Elena found herself looking up at the square tower from Drake’s map. She couldn’t see a clear way in from here, though. Oh well. This was a good spot to get some more footage.

“The remains of the ‘great tower’ offer a clear view of the entire bay,” Elena narrated as she panned the camera up the tower. “From here, Drake would have been able to see the entire eastern coast of the island.” She slowly turned in place, panning across the bay, and zoomed in to the far shore. “But what was he looking for? Some trace of El Dorado’s location? And if so—did he find it?”

Her camera picked up a massive, stately structure along the water, with a domed roof and sweeping balconies. That must have been the old customs house for the colony. And… sunken ships in front of it, masts and prows still jutting out of the relatively shallow water. “What happened here?” she murmured, more to herself than her imagined audience.

A gun cracked behind her, and she yelped, instinctively diving for cover, even as a second shot fired. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she’d gotten so distracted that she’d left herself wide open—Elena ducked behind a rock just as an explosion rocked the area. But not anywhere near her. She cautiously poked her head up in time to see a pair of the pirates go running towards the tower, which was sporting a new hole in one of the balconies. “Oh, no…” she muttered. Had they been shooting at Nate? Was he…

She flipped off her camera and traded it for her pistol, then carefully crept back towards the tower. Elena crouched behind a low wall and watched as one of the pirates kicked some rubble aside. He said something to his companion, who reluctantly reached down and helped him drag Nate upright. Nate’s head lolled against his chest, and from where Elena was sitting, she couldn’t tell if he was alive. He probably was. They wouldn’t bother moving him if he was dead. Right?

Only one way to find out. Elena waited until they’d turned the corner, then trailed after them, keeping a careful distance as they made their way back through the ruins. Eventually, they went into one of the large, half-ruined courtyards and passed through a heavy door at the far end. Elena counted to one hundred before tip-toeing across the yard and trying the door. Locked. Of course. She looked up at the crossed-key symbol over the door and frowned. She’d come through this way earlier, and if she recalled correctly, there were prison cells inside.

Good a place as any to stash Nate, she supposed. She checked the courtyard again, then headed for the windows. Hopefully she’d be able to spot him from out here.


	4. Chapter 4

Elena shook her head, flicking droplets of water across her shoulders, and trailed Nate across the ruined courtyard. “I can't believe that worked.”

“I know,” Nate replied. “You've said that. Several times, actually.”

She rolled her eyes. “Guess it was better than trying to negotiate with your friend up there.”

“He’s not my friend,” Nate retorted, crouching down to check a fallen pistol. Elena tried not to look at the fresh corpse nearby. “We used to work together, that’s it.”

“And now he wants to kill you.”

Nate sighed and stood up, slipping a fresh clip into his holster. “Looks that way.” He shook his head, then walked towards the gate on the far side of the courtyard. Elena hung back and watched as he started cranking the gate open. If this Eddy guy wanted them dead, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. They’d managed to escape from him multiple times now. They’d be all right.

Nate got the gate open and walked through, Elena following close on his heels. The last thing they needed was to get separated. “This was a big mistake,” Nate said with a sigh.

Elena laughed. “No kidding. You know, I should've turned _before_ the bridge.” She dropped down on a collapsed pillar and grimaced. Her legs were killing her. She went running most mornings, but there was a definite difference between 'jogging on an L.A. sidewalk' and 'spending half a day scrambling around a forgotten settlement.'

Nate managed a weak laugh in response. “Heh, very funny.”

She scoffed and looked back at her camera. God, he was grumpy. Maybe that footage she'd gotten earlier would cheer him up. “C'mere,” she said, holding the camera out. “I wanna show you something.”

“That thing still works?” Nate asked.

“Uh-huh.” Solar-powered and waterproof. It was pretty much indestructible. She found the clip she wanted as Nate sat down behind her. Very close behind her, which she appreciated a bit more than was probably wise. “Check this out.” She hit play and narrated as the film ran. “Okay, see this building in the harbor? That's where all the boats going into the colony would've unloaded their cargo. So if the El Dorado treasure came to this island, it would've had to have come through here.” It wasn't much, but they'd long since lost the trail. This might be exactly the lead they needed.

“Wait a minute, what—what was that?” Nate asked. He reached around her to grab the small screen.

“What?”

“Rewind it.” Elena hit the button. Maybe he saw something she missed? Some clue to the treasure? He did do this for a living, he probably-- “Wait, stop.” She paused it on a close-up of a speedboat in the harbor. Nate tapped the screen. “Right there. That's our ticket out of here, c'mon.” He jumped to his feet and headed for the jetski.

Elena stared after him. “Our ticket outta here?” she repeated incredulously. “Are you giving up?”

Nate stopped and turned back towards her, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “Maybe you hadn't noticed, but we're kind of outnumbered.”

Elena rolled her eyes. “We're doin' fine so far,” she replied. She hit fast-forward on the camera again, running it back to the end of the current footage.

“I don't need your bullet-riddled corpse on my conscience, let's go,” Nate said, gesturing at the jetski with both hands.

“Oh, please,” she retorted. This was just insulting-- she'd made it quite clear that she could handle herself. Hell, she was the one who'd saved _his_ sorry ass after he got captured. She didn't need a white knight and it was pretty obvious that he was no good at it. “You quit if you want to, but don't use me as an excuse.” Elena looked back at her camera, thumb hovering over the stop button.

Nate let out a bitter laugh and paced a few steps away before abruptly whirling around to face her. “Fine!” he snapped. “It's me, okay? I am quitting. Are you coming or not?”

“So that's it.” Elena hit stop and stood up to face him. “You're just gonna forget about the treasure and forget about Drake?”

He bared his teeth in a mirthless grin, shaking his head, then stepped toward her. “Goddammit, this is not worth dying over,” he said, jabbing a finger at her chest. He looked a lot like he did when she found him in the jungle, right after Sullivan died, and Elena gave in.

“Okay,” she said, searching his face. She felt sort of bad for pushing him—he’d already lost one person on this quest. Couldn’t really blame him for wanting to bail. “Okay.” Nate looked away, hands on his hips, still radiating tension. Elena stepped towards him, close enough that he couldn’t avoid her gaze. “Listen, either way we have to head back to the harbor,” she pointed out. Nate didn't respond, and she lightly tapped his arm to get his attention. “Don't worry about it,” she said with false cheer. “We can argue about it later. It'll be great!”

She all but skipped past him towards the jetski. “Wait,” Nate said. Elena stopped and turned back to face him, smiling innocently as he half-glared at her. “This time, I drive,” he declared and stalked past.

Elena blinked. “Oookay.” He was getting cranky. Too bad she couldn't really set him up with some juice and a nap; it certainly seemed like he needed it. She clipped her camera to her belt and followed him to the jetski; she had one hand on his shoulder to steady herself when she noticed something on the ground. “Oh, hey!” she said, stepping back to shore and walking over.

Nate raised his eyebrows. “Is that a grenade launcher?”

“Yep!” She climbed on the jetski behind him and settled the weapon across her lap. “Could come in handy.”

“Let's hope not,” Nate muttered and started the ignition.


	5. Chapter 5

Funny. She'd have thought a man with Nate's career path would have recognized the 'swear to tell the truth' gesture. Maybe he'd never been arrested in a country where they bothered with that sort of thing.

Elena rolled her eyes and panned across the harbor again. It would make for some nice, scenic stock footage, the kind of thing she could narrate over when the episode was--

Movement to the west caught her attention, and she aimed the camera at the black helicopter landing on an outcropping. “And who're you?” she murmured to herself and zoomed in as far as she could. She guessed the guy in the helicopter was Navarro, which would make one of the other two men walking towards the chopper Roman. The two of them reached the ladder, and Roman stepped out of the way, giving her a clear view of the other man's face.

“Oh, my god,” she gasped. She kept filming as they boarded the helicopter, then tracked it across the sky until it got a little too close for comfort. Elena lowered her camera and ducked into a shadowy corner, hoping they wouldn't spot her, and watched as it swept over the ruins she and Nate had just passed through.

Nate. She had to tell him.

She hooked her camera back to her belt and hurried to the gate. Nate was nowhere in sight, but the half-collapsed balcony on the other side was evidence that he'd been this way, as was the distant sound of gunfire. Shit. Hopefully he'd be okay. Elena checked her camera and her gun to make sure both were secure, then got a running start and leaped for the balcony.

She caught up with Nate at the dock. He was crouched behind a low wall, pistol out, clearly ready to spring out and take on the large group of pirates single-handed. Given what she'd passed in the rotunda, he had pretty decent odds of success, but she had to tell him what she'd found first. She slid in next to him, keeping her head out of sight, and smiled brightly. “Hey.”

Nate did a literal double-take, and were it not for the pirates behind them and the footage on her camera, she'd probably start laughing. “How did you get here?” he hissed.

Elena held out the camera. “You need to see this.”

“Now is _really_ not the best time,” Nate replied.

He started to move out of cover; Elena grabbed him by the holster and dragged him back down. “No, Nate--”

“What are you doing?” he ground out.

“You really need to watch this.” Nate looked around the edge of their cover again, and Elena grabbed his wrist, holding him in place while she shoved the camera at him and hit play.

Nate grunted in annoyance but took the camera anyway. “What?”

Elena put her finger on the pause button, watching the screen. “Aaaaaand...” On the screen, Victor Sullivan turned, looking straight at the camera. Elena hit pause and poked at the screen. “Hello!” Nate stared at the camera for several long seconds. “He's alive,” Elena added, uncertain if that fact had actually sunk in yet.

“Huh,” he finally said and absently held the camera out to her. Then he laughed, the sound escaping for a moment before Nate clapped a hand over his mouth. “Oh my god, he's alive,” he said, the words muffled by his hand. He slowly dropped his hand and smiled at nothing, shaking his head slightly. “Sully's alive...”

Much as she hated to rain on his parade, there was a rather significant issue with this whole 'Sullivan survived being shot in the chest' thing. “I don't know, Nate,” Elena said. “I mean-- how much do you trust this guy?”

“With my life,” Nate said immediately.

Elena sighed. “It's not exactly like they're holding him at gun-point--”

“I-I know,” Nate said. “It-- seems weird.” He leaned around the edge of their little half-wall just as the boat took off. With a sigh, he got to his feet and holstered his gun. “But no. Sully's a lot of things, but he's not a backstabber.” He pulled out his map and unfolded it, spreading it flat on the top of the wall. “Which way were they headed?”

She hesitated, mentally translating what she'd seen from the balcony onto the map. “Uh... north-ish,” she said, tapping the map. “Yeah, towards the mountains.”

“Okay...that's gotta be the monastery.” Nate refolded the map and exhaled heavily. “Let's go!”

“Um...” Elena hurried after him. “What if it turns out he's working with them?”

Nate whipped around towards her. “He would _never_ \--” He cut himself off and shook his head. “Look, we either rescue him, or we beat the crap out of him.” He paused for a moment. “Hell, I might just beat the crap out of him anyway. Either way, we have to find him.”

It was the sort of proclamation that left no room for argument. Elena just sighed and followed him up the stairs.


	6. Chapter 6

Waiting to get rescued from zombie-ghoul-monster-things had gone from really stressful, to really boring, to really worrying. Elena completed another circuit of the room, peering out the windows as she went. She'd seen a couple of those... things... crawling around on the far side of the dock about ten minutes ago, and while she was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to climb up here, she wasn't willing to bet her life on it. Thus, the patrolling.

Not that it would help, if they did attack-- there wasn't really anywhere she could go from here. Unless she wanted to take her chances back in the caves. Elena sighed and looked towards the heavy door. They'd pounded on it after Nate had gone, but it had been quiet for a while. Still, she didn't want to risk opening it. If nothing else, keeping a lookout gave her something to do.

She completed another two circles around the room before letting herself look at her watch again. Nate had been gone for a little over thirty minutes, and there'd been no sign that the power was back or that the elevator was working. Unpleasant as the thought was, she really needed to start figuring out what to do if he didn't come back. Elena grimaced. Still couldn't make that jump, so... back into the caves and hope for another way out.

It wasn't much of a plan. “C'mon, Nate,” she muttered, “where are you?”

Unsurprisingly, no one answered. Elena was halfway through another loop when the elevator let out a long, loud beep, then started making some weird grinding noises. “Oh, thank god.” She shoved her gun into her belt and ran over. The button didn't light up when she pressed it, but she could definitely see movement in the dark shaft. Elena grinned. Now Nate just had to get back here, they'd head for the surface, find Sullivan, and get the hell off this rock. Roman and Navarro could have their damn gold. This wasn't worth it.

Something slammed into the door behind her. Elena jumped and let out a yelp in spite of herself, then clapped both hands over her mouth and whirled around to face the door. Shit, no, no no no, they were almost out, those things couldn't be back--

Another slam, followed by muffled shouting. That slowed her racing thoughts somewhat. The creatures hadn't ever spoken, just growled and hissed, but while she couldn't make out the words they were definitely human voices. Elena swallowed hard. It probably wasn't Nate or Sullivan-- they would have called to her, asked her to open the door. And the only other people on the island were Roman, Navarro, and their soldiers.

The door bent inward under the next blow, hinges creaking, and Elena winced. She couldn't take them all on, she knew that, and jumping would only get her killed. That meant she only had one option. Surrender. She shuddered and drew her gun, then set it on the console nearby before crossing to stand in front of the table. If they thought she was stupid enough to leave her gun sitting around, then maybe they wouldn't keep as close an eye on her. Maybe she could escape.

One last blow and the door crashed inwards, revealing a mass of black-clad soldiers holding a makeshift battering ram. They stared at her in shock; behind them, a few men raised their guns. Elena put her hands up. Off to the left, the elevator creaked into place and stopped behind the grate. Of course.

“Out of the way,” Roman snapped, cutting through the group of soldiers. He stepped through the doorway, Navarro on his heels, and raised an eyebrow at her. “Ms. Fisher.” Elena just glared at him, but kept her hands up. “I'm surprised they left you alone up here.” Behind him, the soldiers were filing into the room while Navarro muttered orders in Spanish. When Elena didn't respond, Roman sighed and waved a hand at her. “Bring her with us,” he said. “She might be useful.” With that order given, he stepped past her to peer at the charts on the table.

“Oh, this is perfect,” Roman said, apparently to himself, as Navarro took her arm and led her towards the elevator. “Just perfect. Did Drake really just leave these here? No wonder he and Sullivan are so miserable at this sort of thing.” He picked up the papers, then stopped and chuckled. “Excellent. Wait, before we test that thing-- Navarro, bring her here.” He pointed at the other control room, where Elena could see Nate walking in. “We'll keep him distracted while our men move into position.”

Navarro dragged her up towards the control panel while Roman fiddled with the microphone. Even at this distance, she could see Nate’s face fall when he spotted her. “Can you hear me in there?” Roman asked. Nate said something in reply, but the sound didn’t reach them. Elena glanced to the side at Navarro, then at Roman. They were both distracted. Probably her best shot at warning him… “Oh, no microphone on your end?” Roman continued. “Such a shame--”

Elena jerked her arm free and lunged forward to grab the mic. “Nate, get out of there before--” She cut off as Navarro grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back, then the air went out of her lungs as he socked her in the stomach. Elena doubled over, coughing and clinging to the console to stay on her feet. No one was holding her, but she could barely breathe, much less run.

Roman let out an aggravated sigh. “Really, Navarro, if you can’t maintain control over one small girl…”

“It won’t happen again.” Navarro grabbed Elena’s arm, much tighter this time, and yanked her upright. Before she could react, he jammed his pistol against her jaw. “Trust me.”

She froze, watching while Roman continued to taunt Nate about the maps and El Dorado. Nate just glared and scowled, helpless to do anything else. “Oh, and I hope you don’t mind if we borrow Ms. Fisher for a little while longer,” Roman concluded. “Just to keep you and your partner from trying anything clever.” He reached for the mic switch, then paused. “So long, Nate. It’s been fun.”

He turned and started towards the elevator. “Let’s move,” he said. “We need to get back to the church, the access point is there.”

Navarro tossed Nate a mocking salute as he started to haul Elena across the room. Nate gave him a cocky finger-guns gesture in response, but as she twisted her head around to look at him, Elena saw him slam his hands against the glass. She knew the feeling.

“Tie her hands,” Roman said, not bothering to turn as two of his soldiers pried the rusted gate open. “If she’s a problem, we’ll leave her for those beasts.”

Elena swallowed hard and suppressed a shudder, even as Navarro pulled her hands behind her back and tied her wrists with a length of rope. This would make escaping much harder, but she’d figure out something. She had to.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a long trip back to Panama. Sullivan's stolen boat probably wasn't terribly fast to begin with, and the weight of all the treasure piled in the back wasn't helping matters any. Nate had been far less interested in it than she'd expected-- Elena had been sure he'd be spending the voyage back digging through the boxes of gold and appraising different pieces. But he'd given it no more than a cursory glance, while Sullivan was the one who'd been talking numbers and potential buyers.

From the sound of their conversation, it would take a few weeks to sell everything off. Nate said they'd split the money three ways, a statement that seemed more directed at Sullivan than her. Sullivan hadn't argued, at least, and Elena was perfectly fine with waiting a few weeks before heading home, especially if it meant she wouldn't be going back completely empty-handed. No story, but at least she'd be able to repay the studio for the losses without going bankrupt.

And she certainly wasn't going to complain about spending a few more weeks with Nate. Once he'd stopped acting like a sleazy jackass, he'd proven to be a smart, sweet, funny guy with a bit of a heroic streak. The fact that he was easy on the eyes certainly didn't hurt, either. She liked him, and he seemed to like her back, and she wanted it to go somewhere. Where exactly she wasn't quite sure yet, though hopefully it would involve getting him out of his shirt.

Elena watched the stars from her position at the back of the boat, feet braced against a crate of loot and her head tipped back. She lowered her gaze from the sky at the sound of Nate's footsteps. “Hey,” he said as he sat down beside her.

“Hey.”

“You doing okay?”

“Yeah.” Elena nodded and gave him a crooked smile. “Just tired, is all.”

Nate huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, no kidding,” he said. “Long day.”

“I thought this was pretty typical for you,” she teased, elbowing him in the side.

He made a face. “Hey, triumphing over evil is exhausting,” he said. She giggled, and he grinned, his gaze lingering on her face. Elena didn't miss the way his eyes flicked down to her mouth for a second. He'd nearly kissed her back on Navarro's ship, before Sullivan interrupted, but now he looked almost shy about the whole thing.

Elena had no such reservations. She leaned in and kissed him, just a light brush of her lips to his. Nate blinked at her, then gave her a sweet, almost surprised smile before putting his hand on her shoulder and pulling her in for a proper kiss. It wasn't the best kiss she'd ever had-- their lips were both chapped and salty, and the movement of the boat didn't help matters-- but it certainly wasn't bad. She definitely wanted to do it again, though maybe on solid land and after a shower or two.

They drew back after a few moments, both grinning rather goofily at each other. Elena fully intended to go in for another kiss, but even as she started to move towards him again, a huge yawn overtook her. She covered her mouth with her hand and cringed. Nate snickered. “Shut up,” she muttered from behind her hand.

“You weren't kidding about being tired.”

“Shut _up_ ,” she said again, laughing in spite of herself.

Nate just shook his head and held his arm out to her. “C'mon,” he said, “gonna be a long trip back. May as well get some sleep.”

She hesitated for half a second, then scooted over and leaned against his side, her head resting on his chest. Nate wrapped his arm around her shoulders, then let out a rather happy-sounding sigh. Elena smiled and let her eyes fall shut.


End file.
